Migrant Women: Negotiating Rights And Recognition in the Political and Legal Framework of the European Union

Abstract

“When you organize a training on Gender Mainstreaming... you dis- cover that nationality and legal status... are not yet recognized or are, at most, secondary factors,” though manuals on program evaluation indicate the goal of reducing inequalities related to ‘ multiple discriminations.’ The quote points to the difficulties a local project in the EQUAL initia- tive of the European Union (EU) faces: the project, which offers services for the professional qualification of refugees and asylum seekers, tries to marry official program evaluation criteria, general policy guidelines, and its own approach. These perspectives and requirements do not always match. Thus the project creates its own approach: it takes the already existing instruments and institutions from gender mainstreaming, adds “diversity,” and renames it as “Diversity Mainstreaming.” As the intro- ductory example shows, various markers of identity or ascription, such as religion, sexual orientation, age, and ethnicity, matter for migrant women.